Curses
by Night-Parfait
Summary: Joey is mutating- each time further losing himself each time the attacks occur; and on the days he isn't bullying Joey, Kaiba is hot on the trail of a real life dragon claimed to be loose in Domino city. With Joey's life falling to pieces and Kaiba's enthusiasm putting him in danger, how will the romance unfold? Kaijou
1. Prolouge

**Parfait:** Hey everyone :3 thank you for reading _Curses_~

Remember: While I wish the characters of _Yugioh!_ belonged to me, they do not.

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The rain is my blanket, pouring heavy and steady against my torn flesh. Blood and dirt drip off of me and spill to the street cobbles, washing away like water down the drain. Here I stay resting alone, safe, in the middle of the night. It doesn't matter that I am drenched to the bone or that this is my only clothes for the next few days maybe. My stomach snarls but there is nothing to eat and no money in my pocket. In this alley way there is probably something edible amongst its many garbage cans, but I have no strength to get up again to search through anything.

I lean against the brick wall and peer up at the sky, squinting in the rain, to see no stars, no moon, no nothing- just the uneven roofs above framing the black abyss. My eyes slowly close and open again. Sleep is finally deciding to engulf its prey. I close my eyes again and even more slowly, I open them once more. My breath loud in my ears, the rain drowns out all the other noise of the city. Looking to my arms, I'm relieved that those black scales have disappeared despite them leaving my skin bloody and mangled.

This is my life these days. Pulling my hoodie as far over my face as possible, I crouch into a small ball. I wiggle out the little electronic recorder I managed to accidently steal the other day. I turn it on and keep the plastic bag that I keep it in mostly around it to protect it from the rain. I press record.

"There is something wrong with me. I don't know what happened down the line, but I must have done something terribly wrong to be punished in this way. I don't know how long I have left on this planet, or at least, how much longer I will own this body. Before I lose myself, I want you, whoever you are, to know who I am. My name is Joey Wheeler. I go to Domino high school. My best friend's names are Yugi, Tristan and Tea. I love to eat and live a pretty average life….

…but not anymore, I think I am cursed…

…I have been randomly mutating. At first I just had these strange scales grow out on my skin- almost like fingernails, they would stay for a bit, and then they would fall off. They were so thin that they were easy to pick off. It hurt about as much as hangnail. Now things are much worse. In random, much, much more painful spurts, these little 'fingernails' have become full grown scales-thicker than a quarter and sharp enough to tear through anything. They have spread all over my body now. I have claws that burst from my fingertips, which feels like my bone exploding out every time it happens. I look like someone who was buried alive and tried to scratch their way out of their coffin.

Today's addition to the mutation is a tail. It didn't progress slowly like the scales. It just burst from the bottom of my spine- long, black and spiny. I almost died from the pain on the spot. I can't even begin to describe it. I threw up a few times before that other thing took over.

That's the worst part of all of this, every time it happens, I further lose the ability to connect mentally with myself. It terrifies me. That's the reason I'm recording this. I feel the mutation happening, and then I wake up in some random place. I can feel something else pushing me into my own head and taking over. I hope that I don't end up killing someone while this other thing is pulling the reigns. If I do and you already saw it on the news before hearing this, it really wasn't my intention. I'm not a good person but I never wanted to kill anyone…." I stop the tape. When I play it back, my voice is shaky and the rain makes the recording very crackly. I feel a few tears drip down, or maybe it is just the rain.

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_If you have the time, or enjoy/hated what you read- please tell me about it I'd love to hear from you~R&R_

_Love,_

_Nightparfait_


	2. Daily grind

_Dear readers, _

_Thank you for your kind reviews Thank you for your patience as well~ _

**_As always: I do not own this series!_**

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The sun was already high in the sky by the time I awoke. The city smells began to rise from every corner of the now completely dry, and hot, alley way. Random strangers walked by without so much as a glance. My clothes were stiff with clumps of dry dirt on the bottom of my pant legs. An involuntary groan escaped me as I rose to my feet. I collected my plastic bag with the stolen tape recorder and left the alley. The first man that happened to pass me wore a pin striped hat with a plain black suit. I asked him for the time; just three hours left until school ended.

Did I want to go to school today? Not really; especially considering the fact that I had just spent the night in the rain and haven't really eaten. Not to mention that I have sporadic painful mutations from some alien disease of some sort or other. As I thought this, I somehow already ended up at the school gates. Sighing at my predictable behavior, I jumped the gate with relative ease. I took a shortcut through the nurses office and grabbed the whole pack of Band-Aids off the wall. I quickly put them over my finger tips to hide some of the damages from yesterday. When I got to my class and I looked in. Everyone at this point was finishing up their lunch in the class room. I took this as my cue to enter.

"Joey!" Yugi called, immediately coming over and greeting me. I smiled and returned his joyful hug. "I saved you some lunch…" Yugi's voice faded out as he noticed the various wounds scattered across my body, but quickly snapped back into his cheerful demeanor, grabbing my hand and pulling me over to my desk. I felt the cold stare of Seto Kaiba on my back. I glanced his way just in time to catch his judgmental glance before he returned to his Q-coffee. I couldn't stop my look from turning foul. Spoiled rotten brat had his lunch personally delivered by restaurant again today.

I plopped down in my chair and looked down at the adorable bento that Yugi made for me. He made the little hotdogs look like octopus and the rice like a sand dollar. I would really starve without this guy. Actually, this little guy and his home-made lunches was probably the reason why I still bothered coming to this place at all. A hand patted my back and I looked up to see Tristan wearing a cautious smile. All of my friends knew something was up but no one had the balls to say anything. For this, I am very fortunate.

"Are you busy today Joey? We were thinking about going shopping." Tea said with a smile, turning around to lean on my desk, propping her head up with one hand. Yugi smiled excitedly.

"Yeah sure." I grinned my famous happy-go-lucky grin. For now, I have to live life to the fullest. Yugi's face exploded with cheerfulness. This was normal. Tristan and Tea had the same reaction which was a little less normal. Something was up. I raised a brow and opened my mouth to respond but within seconds the whole situation changed.

"What an awful stench the dog has brought in." Kaiba said coming up from behind me. I didn't answer, stubbornly I finished eating my bento Yugi made for me, I pretended he wasn't here.

"Leave him alone Kaiba!" Yugi said, standing up. I stood up and turned around. The last thing I need is for Yugi to start crying. If that happened, I'd probably lose my mind. Kaiba smirked at my reaction. I was about to walk out of the room when the teacher re-entered. Kaiba looked at me with a glint in his eye before turning on his heel and returning to his seat. I plopped back down and replaced the lid on my bento and slid it into my desk, along with the plastic bag with the tape recorder in it before putting my head down.

"Joey, I see you decided to join us." The teacher called out. I cringed. I was hoping she didn't notice me. "Stand up and take your place." She ordered. I sighed, stood up, and walked to the back of the room. She nodded once and began the second portion of the class. From here I could see Kaiba's laptop screen, which showed a graph of sorts and words to small to read from this far. I stood for three hours until the bell rung, I turned to leave with Yugi and the gang.

"Joey. Come to the front." The teacher ordered. I sighed and made my way to the front as the rest of the students left through the doors. I could see Yugi and the gang waiting outside the classroom through the hall window. It wasn't until the door finally closed that I turned my attention to the teacher.

"Are you alright?" She questioned. I nodded. I could tell she didn't believe me. "Joey, there are programs for children that are abused by their parents. I know your relationship with your father is a little unsavory and…" I put my hand up.

"No really teach, I am okay." I said. She looked at me sternly and reached into her bag to pull out a paper brochure about abused kids shelters. I rolled my eyes.

"At least take this with you and look it over." She handed it to me. "Please try to come in a clean uniform as well, I may overlook it, but other administrators may not be so kind." I nodded, shoving the brochure in my pocket before leaving the room.

"What was that about?" Tea asked., Yugi and Tristan looking at me with curious faces. I shook my head.

"She just wanted me to look into tutoring." I lied. They made faces.

"Do you want me to help you?" Yugi asked with concern. I smiled.

"Nah, I'll be fine." I said. "Lets go." They agreed, and we started down the hall way. My arms began to feel itchy. I paused for a second in terror, looking down at my arms. I could see little black speckles rising. "I gotta pee real quick!" I yelled, taking a super sharp turn into the bathroom, slamming into some poor guy in the way, and went into a stall. It took me a few seconds to lock the little metal slider on the stall because I was shaking. I could feel pain shooting up my arms and down my back. I fell to the floor beside the toilet.

I was already breaking into a cold sweat by this time. What the heck is going on? I had already mutated recently! Why is this happening again so soon? I threw up hard into the toilet, feeling the excruciating pain of the black tail beginning. This was the same feeling as last time, right before I blacked out. A knock sounded on the stall door that I was now leaning against. I looked up in horror. Why the heck did Yugi follow me in here?

"Occupied." I called out in a strained voice. Hopefully they would think I was taking a big dump rather than crumbling on the floor in pain.

"Joey." A voice sounded. The blood left my face. It wasn't Yugi, but Kaiba.

"Wha-What do you want? Can't you see that I'm trying to take a crap here?" I coughed out, stomping my foot against the toilet metal bar to make the toilet flush in order to make it a little more believable. There was a moment of silence. What the hell is with this guy?

I groaned again and suddenly felt oddly normal. The pain seemed to be sucking itself into a tight little ball right at my core, gathering itself from my finger tips and pulling in. Within a moment, without warning, there was no pain at all. I sighed and fell back into the corner of the stall in relief; almost forgetting that Kaiba was right outside. He banged on the door again causing me to jump out of my skin. I stood up and ripped the door open scowling. That scowl soon faded as I caught the strangely out of character surprise in Kaiba's eyes and the crumpled pamphlet the teacher just gave me in his hands.

My eyes widened, as I snatched it away immediately. Kaiba's eye brow rose as I re-shoved the damned thing back into my pocket. I noticed his gaze at the same time I heard my friends outside the door. I moved to exit the bathroom but just as I saw the door opening, a hard fist hit me square in the jaw.

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_Loved it? Hated it? Did I totally screw up the flow? I'd love to hear your thoughts if you have the time _

_With Love, _

_Night-Parfait~ _


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